Entries in Life

Philip Pullman is the author of His Dark Materials, a series of children’s books. He is often characterized as the anti-C.S. Lewis. The series is unusual for children’s books in that there doesn’t seem to any “good” characters and it seems to abound in grey rather than black-and-white.

The Third Way (“The modern world through Christian eyes”) has this wonderful interview with Mr. Pullman.

I’ve not read his books, so I can’t comment on them in particular, but I would like to comment on his concept of the “Republic of Heaven” that he talks about in the interview. Specifically,

But when it no longer became possible to believe, a lot of people felt despair. What was the meaning of life? It seems that our nature is so formed that we need a feeling of connectedness with the universe. If there is no longer a king, or a kingdom of heaven, it will have to be a republic in which we are free citizens. We ourselves as citizens have to build the republic of heaven.

The phrase that gets me is “when it no longer became possible to believe”. Now, obviously, it is still possible to believe, but perhaps not in the same way that we believed before. To borrow a line, this belief has to “put away childish things” like a comprehensible God. Pullman’s god is comprehensible. Pullman says “I’m all for the death of god.” and

This is what I am against. Not Christianity, but every religion and fundamental organisation where there is one truth and they will kill you if you don’t believe it.

So it is a relief to me that even though Pullman has his “tiniest pinprick of light” — the realm where he knows what he knows — he isn’t going to kill me because the Light I believe in doesn’t mesh with his.

The really amazing thing to me is that he believes in his “method of belief”. That is, he wanted Christianity to be rational, its adherents to be wholly good and right. And he turned away when he found that so many of them were not right and had not acted in anything like a Christian manner towards their neighbors. The crusades, the witch-hunts, any sort of vileness done in the name of Christianity — this is what turned him away.

But he still believes in rational morality. He still believes in the rightness of things. Not “because God says so”, but because they are part of the “wisdom of the ages.” But it must be a tolerant wisdom. One that doesn’t kill off people because they don’t agree (he condemns Stalin and Mao for the same reason he condemns the Inquisition).

There is nothing wrong with tolerant wisdom. I would argue that wisdom is always tolerant of people who disagree with it. But, at the same time, it is foolish to condemn God to death because his followers haven’t managed to do as He taught. God is not the one at fault.

And, it is foolish to condemn God to death because you don’t see room for Him within your “pinprick of light”. This is why I have trouble with the phrase “when it no longer became possible to believe”. Because if you admit that you only have the tiniest pinprick of light, then that leaves room for a lot more Light than you can comprehend. It also leaves room for Light that makes your own seem dark, dusty and grey.

Here is a draft of the RFC for the “xmlrpc” URL scheme.

Update: Someone asked “How will this work with current web browsers?” And the answer is that it won’t. Just as the current “data” url scheme only works with Mozilla.

Update: Seraphim read this and said I sounded jaded and perhaps too dogmatic. I don’t deny the jaded part. I “know” too much and appreciate too little. But I didn’t intend to appear dogmatic. The Orthodox celebration of Holy Days has been wonderful for me. However, I don’t think the only way to celebrate is with “smells and bells”.

This time of year can be awkward for some people. Jeff, for instance, just doesn’t feel that “christmasy” this year. As for myself, I’ve never been a holiday person. Even Christian Holy Days (like Christmas and Easter) didn’t seem that special to me for the longest time.

Sure, as a kid I liked getting stuff, I enjoyed seeing relatives, but I didn’t associate that with Christmas and I didn’t see that it was that special. I saw relatives at other times so that wasn’t particular to any holiday. I went to church quite regularly with my family, so it wasn’t special because of that (except for some “Christmas Program” put on by the choir). About the only thing that stood out was the plethora of presents. The tree and wrapping paper and a reading from Luke. That’s about all there was to Christmas.

Now, you might say that this sounds like a fairly secularized Christmas, and I would have to agree. Advent? Something about a candle. The wise men? Shepards? Read about them once a year. Similar things could be said about my experience with Easter.

I bring this up because I came across this article on “emergent churches” that talks, in part, about how many “young Christians” are disappointed with the “Contemporary Worship” style and are going with a “traditional” style of worship. “Traditional” here evidently means “What many churches used in the 1950′s”. I grew up in a traditional church setting, and, I’ve got to say, neither it nor “Contemporary” worship styles feel meaningful to me. As I said, Christian “Holy Days” felt like little more than so much wrapping paper or a few chocolate eggs.

When it comes to worship, I want hard core: standing, bowing, chanting, incense, prayers, sacraments. (“Smells and bells” is how one person put it.) Now, that’s transcendent! When it comes to Holy Days, I want meaning, preparation, fasting, and celebration. If the Christmas or Pascha is just a red-lined day on the calendar, then there isn’t that much to it and it will be celebrated for little more than wrapping paper or chocolate bunnies. But, if you spend 40 days fasting, processions around the church singing hymns, and a midnight feast, you’ll understand the “Holy” aspect of the holiday more thoroughly.

Better, have church services that lead up to and prepare those who come for the Holy Day. Something that takes the participants into the event being celebrated. In my church, there are services every night leading up to Pascha in which the church partakes in the events being celebrated. You are there as Jesus carries his cross to be crucified. You know what it means. The joy you feel on hearing that Christ is risen is real. You can see that it matters.

Of course, there is still room for presents at Christmas. But why not celebrate the legend of St. Nicholas instead of Santa Claus? Re-sanctify the Holy Day. Sure, it’s a pagan, commercial celebration now, but re-capture it just as the early Christians did.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!